Every night millions of Canadians turn on their television sets and open their minds to hefty doses of “cultural” programming. To the dismay of many Canadian nationalists, the “culture” many Canadians are choosing to expose themselves to is not Canadian drama, but the culture of the United States as it is expressed through television shows ranging from Dynasty to Alf to the movie of the week.

But Canadian nationalists are not the only ones upset at the television viewing patterns of the average Canadian; the Americans who own the copyrights in these programs are also upset. The American producers and broadcasters are unhappy because Canadian cable companies are retransmitting their programs-sometimes with all of the commercials deleted- and they are not providing any compensation whatsoever to the Americans for this use of their programming.

But this situation will not last much longer. As a result of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, reached on October 4, 1987, the owners of copyright in American broadcasts can soon expect to receive some compensation for the retransmission of their works in Canada . . . Read More